A History of Horncastle, from the earliest period to the present time

by J. Conway Walter

WEST ASHBY.

This parish, like High Toynton, Mareham-on-the-Hill and Wood Enderby, was formerly a hamlet of Horncastle, of which it adjoins the northern boundary. We find them all coupled together in an extract from the Testa de Nevill

[folio 348 (556), quoted Lincs. Notes & Queries, vol. iii, p. 215] as follows: “The church of Horncastre, and of Askeby, and of Upper Thinton, and of Meringes, and of Hinderby, are of the gift of the Lord,” i.e. the Lord of the Manor. In Domesday Book it is called Aschebi. Queen Editha, wife of Edward the Confessor, who owned various lands in this neighbourhood, was Lady of this Manor, as well as that of Horncastle. She held here six carucates of land (or about 720 acres), besides which there were 45 soc-men, 5 villeins, and 13 bordars, with eight carucates (or about 960 acres), and 500 acres of meadow and pasture. (Domesday, “Soke of Horncastle.”)

Domesday also mentions that the Saxon thane, Chetelburn, who had property in Coningsby, Keal, Candlesby, Friskney, and other places in the county, had at Ashby “a mill worth 12s. yearly,” a very considerable sum in those days. The manor was afterwards held by the Conqueror himself (Domesday, “Property of the King”); and it would seem, although there is no direct evidence of it, that he bestowed the manor on one of his chief favourites, Ranulph de Paganall, who received from his sovereign extensive grants in the counties of Somerset, Devon, York, Northampton, and Lincoln, [177] including all the lands formerly held by the Saxon Merleswain, in this county and elsewhere. Ranulph Paganall founded (A.D. 1089) the Priory of the Holy Trinity in York, said to have been built on the site of a former Roman heathen temple; one of his family, Helias Pagnall, being subsequently Prior of this institution, and Canon of Selby. When the present Church of the Holy

Trinity was restored in 1904, among other ancient monuments, was found the slab of the tomb of Ralph Ranulph, which is still preserved in the church, along with sculptures commemorative of St. Benedict, St. Martin of Tours, Prior Helias, and others. [178a]

Ranulph, by charter of that date, endowed the abbey with two-thirds of the tithes of Ashby; which was further confirmed by charters of 1100, 1125, and 1179. This Ranulph Paganall was Sheriff of Yorkshire. The last known representative of his family was William Paganall, summoned to Parliament as a Baron in the reign of Edward III. Dugdale states [178b] that the Priory of the Holy Trinity was made, by its founder, a dependency or cell of the greater monastery (marmonstier) of the above, St. Martin in Touraine; and by the Inquisition, taken at York, 34 Ed. I., it was found that he claimed no portion of the temporalities of the Priory, beyond the right to place an official there, during the vacancy of the priorate, as temporary custodian. The name Paganall became in later times softened into Paynell; they were at one time Lords of Bampton.

At a later period the manor of Ashby, probably with that of Horncastle, belonged to Gerard de Rhodes and his descendant, Ralph; since in a Charter Roll of 14 Henry III. (pt. i, M. 12), we find that King’s confirmation of a grant, made by the said Ralph, to Walter, Bishop of Carlisle, of “the manor of Horncastle, with the soke, and the advowsons of the churches, and all other things pertaining to the same in all places,” evidently including the churches of the hamlets as well as that of the town. Among the witnesses to this are Gervase, Archdeacon of Carlisle; and Henry de Capella; the latter name being noticeable because, as will be seen below, Ashby was called “Capella.” [178c]

The Abbey of Kirkstead had a grange in Ashby, which after the dissolution of the monasteries, was granted in the 5th year of Edward VI., to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England; this is now part of the Ashby Thorpe estate. [178d] In 1820 this was the property of Mr. Joseph Rinder. It is now partly owned by the Booth family, and partly by the Smedley trustees.

The parish is still divided into Far Thorpe, Church Thorpe, and Middle Thorpe. Far Thorpe included the farms held by the late Mr. Griffin and Mr. Addison. Mr. Wattam’s house, which is moated, was the old Midthorpe Hall. As being a hamlet of Horncastle, the benefice was formerly called Ashby “Capella,” or the Ashby Chapelry; and like Horncastle, Wood Enderby, High Toynton, and Mareham is given in “Liber Regis” as in the patronage of the Bishop of Carlisle. Until recently it was a perpetual curacy, in value about £50 a year; but about 30 years ago, on the enfranchisement of certain episcopal lands, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners endowed it to the extent of £300 a year, and built a substantial vicarage. The patronage is now with the Lord Chancellor by exchange with Kirk Oswald, Cumberland.

The church, All Saints, is of considerable size, being one of the largest village churches in the neighbourhood, mainly in the Perpendicular style, and substantially built, consisting of tower, nave, and chancel, the two latter of the same elevation throughout. The tower has three old bells, and a peal of eight tubular bells. Gervase Holles gives the inscriptions on the bells as being:

1. Sit nomen Domini benedictum.

2. Intonat e cælis vox campana Michaelis.

3. Sum rosa pulsata Mundi Maria vocata.

One of these was, some years ago, re-cast; and now bears the inscription “voco ad templum, date 1759.”

The main features of the church are as follows: the porch arch is semi-circular, Norman, the west window in the tower is unusually high, 12-ft. by 4-ft. in width, of three lights. The north aisle has four bays. The nave, in the south wall, has two three-light windows, the western one perpendicular and having pointed arch, the eastern square headed. In the north wall there is a three-light debased decorated window. In the west wall of the north aisle is a two-light window of coloured glass, in memory of Augustus Elmhirst; and in its eastern wall is a three-light memorial window to his sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Ruck Keene. In the south wall of the chancel are two late four-centre two-light windows; and in the north wall a three-light flamboyant window. Gervase Holles mentions a north chancel window having “sa. a crosse between 4 cinquefoyles arg. . . .,” [179] but this has disappeared. The east window is modern, with three lights. A new window was erected, in 1907, in the north aisle (corresponding to a window inserted in 1905, in memory of General and Mrs. Elmhirst), by Mr. H. R. Elmhirst, to the memory of his late wife, Lilian Frances, nee Hatfeild; the artists were Powell and Sons; the subject Faith, Hope and Love represented by three figures.

The communion table has a very handsome cover, with red frontal, elaborately embroidered with old Roman work. A carved wooden reredos has recently been presented by Col. and Mrs. Stack. On a tablet on the north wall

is an elaborate inscription, in memory of Lieutenant Richard Calthrop, who was killed at the siege of Algiers; erected by his mother and 10 surviving brothers and sisters; who are said to have lived to the remarkable average age of 85 years. There are various tablets commemorative of the families of Rockliffe, Drewry, Pierce and Elmhirst. There is a north door, as well as south, to the nave. The font is a plain octagonal one, perpendicular in style.

The church was restored and reseated in 1873; the tower being renovated in memory of Mrs. Barnard, otherwise known as “Claribel,” a well-known musical composer, connected with the Elmhirst family. It is lofty and massive, surmounted by four high pinnacles and large gurgoyles at the angles.

The register dates from 1561. [180a] The communion plate consists of a cup, with inscription “Ashby Chappell, 1758;” a paten presented by “Elizabeth Pierce, Christmas Day, 1841,” and flagon, given by the same, in 1859. She was the wife of the Vicar of that day, the Rev. W. M. Pierce, and an authoress. In the churchyard are the tombstones of John Thistlewood and his wife; he was brother of the Cato Street conspirator, and died at Louth, having formerly resided at Ashby and Wispington.

The late William Elmhirst, Esq., bought the lands here formerly belonging to the Bishops of Carlisle, and erected a handsome and substantial residence, in well-wooded grounds; which in later years passed by purchase to the Booth family, by whom it, and the estates attached, are now owned. It is at present occupied by Dr. and Mrs. Newstead. The Elmhirsts are at present represented by H. R. Elmhirst, Esq., son of the late General Charles Elmhirst, C.B., who resides at The Grove.